16 will try not to get boot to take home major loot

New Fox show filmed in Clay

By Diana MarreroTimes-Union staff writer,

Can't get your fill of reality TV shows? If Survivor, Temptation Island, Big Brother and The Mole have left you craving still more voyeuristic entertainment, here's another show for you. And this one was filmed in our back yard: Camp Blanding.

Boot Camp, an eight-episode Fox series where 16 contestants strived to survive one month of military boot camp for a grand prize of $500,000, will premier tomorrow.

Contestants surrendered all aspects of their civilian lives to play a game of elimination set against the backdrop of a military-style training program. Real drill instructors set the pace 24 hours a day, putting the recruits through obstacle courses and other specialized training meant to build confidence and force them to face their fears.

"People will do almost anything for $500,000," said drill instructor Annette Taylor, who is a real-life gunnery sergeant in the Marines. "All 16 had the determination to win because they knew there was cash on the other side."

Boot Camp drill instructors will put the recruits through obstacle courses and other specialized training meant to build confidence and force them to face their fears.

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During each episode the contestants will take part in a mission -- from hostage rescue to rappelling out of buildings -- that tests their training and ultimately reveals the weak links in the squad. Success might mean more sleep, better food and the possibility of remaining in Boot Camp.

"It's a grueling experience," said Scott Messick, the show's executive producer and director. "It's meant to be. That's what the drill instructors are there for: to test who wants to be here."

That's true, said Taylor, adding that military recruits she's worked with as a drill instructor are usually better prepared for training.

"These people may not have known what they were getting themselves into," she said.

Like the show that sparked the reality TV show craze, Survivor, someone in Boot Camp gets the boot each week, but in a dramatic twist, the loser takes someone with him. No one is safe.

"This eliminates simple alliances," Messick said. "It makes the strategies so complex. If you hate each other, you will protect each other because if one goes, he'll take the other."

Recruits will tough it out for big bucks on Boot Camp, a new reality TV show on Fox that starts at 9 p.m. tomorrow. The winner of the show, which was filmed at Camp Blanding, takes home $500,000.

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The 16 recruits -- chosen from among 6,500 applicants across the country -- could not be more different. There's a deputy sheriff, an art teacher, a sales analyst and a homemaker. There's even a pig farmer from McDonough named Rebecca Ann Haar.

Katie Coddington, the only recruit from Florida, is a 23-year-old from Tallahassee, where she works as a scholarship counselor for a non-profit organization. The show's producers would not grant interview requests with contestants until they are booted off the camp but a promotional video clip shows Coddington with tears in her eyes, lips quivering, as a drill instructor growls at her.

"What'd you expect, a vacation?" he yells in her face.

Famous grounds

Camp Blanding, which served as training grounds for soldiers during the World War II era, is no stranger to camera crews. GI Jane, starring Demi Moore, was partly filmed at Camp Blanding in 1996. More recently, Hollywood director Joel Schumacher used Camp Blanding as a backdrop for his film Tigerland, based on the Vietnam War.

Boot Camp has its premiere on Fox at 9 p.m. tomorrow.

"No, sir," she said.

"People come in one way and get out another, weak people become strong, selfish people become team players," Messick said.

But the one that might leave most changed -- or at least richer -- is the ultimate $500,000 winner.

Messick said he expects the show to get high ratings because "people have developed an appetite for reality TV."